Amin Elhassan insists
Damian Lillard deal is
‘done,’ calls out Woj for
spreading ‘ridiculous’
rumors
"It's all poppycock."
Awful Announcing is a respected media monitoring site. I have never heard of Amin Elhassan but Awful does an awfully good job of spreading the cred around on this. For example,
In this scenario, what does Wojnarowski gain by delaying the inevitable, insulting our collective intelligence by pushing a narrative that no one, not even himself, believes? Amin Elhassan of The Dan Le Batard Show has a theory, implying Woj is doing Portland a solid, carrying water for the Trail Blazers in hopes of leveraging a better offer from Miami.
"Adrian knew. He knows what the deal is.What he is engaging in is protecting one of his closest sources by giving them cover by saying there's no way he's going to Miami and coming up with ridiculous premises like San Antonio could be a dark horse. It’s all poppycock." – @DarthAmin explains the potential motives behind Woj's reporting on Damian Lillard.
That is a very serious charge to make against THE source for breaking NBA deals. What is in it for Woj to make himself appear cluelessly wrong? Protecting his source? The whole fucking world knows Dame wants ONLY to come to Miami. But others concur!
[Dan] Le Batard conveyed a similar message, suggesting ESPN is hoping to drag the Lillard saga out as long as possible, doing everything in its power to keep the content machine running amid a quiet period on the sports calendar.
“[The Heat] know they’ve got Lillard,” said Le Batard. “When no one’s talking about things that are going on in sports, hot-dog eating contests and baseball, Lillard will fill your timeline. Who’s a bigger star right now that might be on the move anywhere in sports? The transaction feeds so much of this that it now eats up so much TV content with people talking about how Boston and Philadelphia can get in the game.”
Exasperated by ESPN’s misleading coverage, Miami Herald reporter Barry Jackson is also tired of entertaining the network’s charade, stretching credibility by keeping alive a story that most would acknowledge as a foregone conclusion.
Don't have it in me to listen to ESPN debate every day why Lillard should be pushing for Boston/Philly instead of Heat & this whole "respect" for Spurs thing. ESPN seems to keep alive other non Miami options partly to justify debating this on its hours and hours of panel shows.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 5, 2023
That's two guys, Miami guys though, who I respect and a third guy who I don't know and the reporting from non-Espo sources, including the Portland Oregonian is overwhelmingly consistent. To a confidence level of "reasonable probability" my verdict is that Espo is chumming. Beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, somebody or other is going to look really, really bad depending on how this turns out.
